


Solo Act

by Nununununu



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Bisexual Tsukino Usagi, Character Study, Don't copy to another site, F/F, Future Fic, Getting Together, Identity Issues, Introspection, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Pining, Post-Canon, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-02
Updated: 2019-08-02
Packaged: 2020-07-29 20:01:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20087947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nununununu/pseuds/Nununununu
Summary: What happens after the finale?Five years later, Fighter, with nothing left to fight, returns to Earth.





	Solo Act

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spookykingdomstarlight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spookykingdomstarlight/gifts).

> Firstly a massive thank you to Spookykingdomstarlight for such wonderful fic prompts :) I was fascinated by the idea of writing about a future Star Fighter and exploring her character in peacetime, both before and after she's reunited with Usagi.
> 
> Usagi's 'stalking' comes from the manga and the mention of her liking karaoke comes from the live-action version. Everything else is based on the 1992 anime.
> 
> Just in case: AO3 won't allow me to tag Seiya as Star Fighter or Sailor Moon/ Star Fighter, so please note this is f/f with Fighter in her female form and not as male Seiya.
> 
> Update: Fixed a continuity error.

1

It’s been five years.

Five years since the Starlights were reunited with their princess and returned to Kinmoku; five years in which they’ve worked steadily to rebuild their world. Five years in which to set down their weapons: to remain vigilant, but to relearn how to live outside of the constant shadow of threat and loss. Five years in which to re-establish and strengthen connections with other senshi out there; to deepen bonds of friendship with other planets and to create a wide network of support.

Five years in which to begin to heal.

For some this comes quicker than others. For some it’s a long process. For Fighter, in many ways being back home is easy – apart from when it’s not.

There are little things she misses about Earth, things that take her by surprise. Things that would seem inconsequential, except it’s well over a year before she stops getting random cravings for hamburgers, for example, and sometimes on quiet evenings, when it’s just the Starlights and Princess Kakyuu, she finds echoes of old unfinished songs weaving through her thoughts. Ones she tells herself aren’t relevant now, but that stay with her all the same.

She prefers not to let herself think about the other things – like people; a person – she misses. Memories that wake her in the night, feeling like there’s a hole in her chest.

The idea to return to Earth isn’t hers.

Princess Kakyuu summons her Starlights after a celebration dinner attended by grand and humble alike, old and young, Kinmoku citizens and those from off-world. A celebration of the peace, stability and safety they now enjoy; the restoration of everything they’d thought gone. A memorial for everything they lost.

“The three of you have worked so hard,” their princess says when it is just the four of them. She has settled back into life on Kinmoku as if she never left, radiant and resplendent, adored by all. “Thanks to your efforts, we can be sure we have a solid foundation on which to stand firm against any threat that may come.”

The Starlights state their appreciation of her far from insubstantial efforts as well.

“We have been so focused on the past and future,” Princess Kakyuu tips her head up to gaze up at the stars, “But now we are secure, I believe the time has come for us to concentrate on the present.”

It is then she tells the Starlights she feels they should temporarily leave her side. That they are not to be disbanded, but to go on sabbatical, as it were. To have the chance to discover themselves in a way they never have before: aside from their short time as the Three Lights, they have always been the Starlights, ever on duty and in uniform.

And acting as the Three Lights was predominantly that – an act – even if, for Fighter more than the others, the lines had begun to blur.

The thought of going solo is an utterly foreign idea to all three of them, at first.

“You always have been and will be my Starlights,” Their princess smiles as she looks at them, focusing on each one in turn, “But my brief time on Earth and the five years since has brought me to believe that you should all have the opportunity to learn about and further yourselves, either here or off-world.”

“We can do that on Kinmoku,” is Healer’s immediate protest. She looks to the other two for their agreement.

“As Taiki I received invitations to study at several universities,” Maker says slowly instead, her expression contemplative, “If I were to reapply to one as myself and they allow me to work at my own speed, I expect I could complete the course in a year.” Her gaze is on Princess Kakyuu for a moment before she glances at her fellow Starlights, “I agree with our princess that our position is now secure.”

“As for myself, I would like to enjoy the peace here,” Princess Kakyuu’s smile deepens, “There are places I would like to return to and friends I would visit; many of our people that I long to spend time with. A year could be beneficial to us all.”

“I suppose I could find things to do,” Healer mutters after a pause. Her tone is not as reluctant as her words imply. Both she and Maker turn to their gaze to their as yet silent leader.

Fighter cannot respond. She does not have words.

Had she been prepared for this, she might have argued, possibly even tried to refuse: their duty – her duty – is here, on Kinmoku. As it is only her hands move, her fingers curling into fists, the action doing little to ground the whirling emotion inside her.

Princess Kakyuu’s attention concentrates on her.

“I assure you I will never be alone and will never be in danger,” she tells Fighter gently, “Nor will Kinmoku. There are people on Earth who would like to see you, aren’t there. Perhaps one person in particular.”

After five years, Fighter has no idea if this is true. Even at the times she has found herself struck by the unbidden longing for certain sights, certain sounds, even certain flavours not found on Kinmoku, she has had countless opportunities to form new memories on her own world.

She has not allowed herself to even think of returning.

Now there is the chance to go back, she is too stunned to be able to say whether the thought seeing – someone, anyone; perhaps indeed one person in particular – fills her with enthusiasm or – something else.

She feels oddly adrift at the prospect of setting off alone, as if she’s been unmoored.

“Let us at least look into the possibility,” Princess Kakyuu says encouragingly.

Within a week, she has spoken to Earth’s senshi and has it all set up.

2

Some things are different, while many others are the same.

Sailor Moon extends an invitation for the Starlights and their princess to visit at any time, for as long as they like. The Starlights and their princess extend the same offer for Earth’s senshi to visit Kinmoku in return. For the time being, only Maker and Fighter take the invitation up.

Maker is offered her choice of course at an Earth university without any trouble, with special dispensation to study at an accelerated pace, and Fighter –

Fighter has nothing left to fight and no objective aside beyond rebuilding their planet and guarding Princess Kakyuu. Once she’s spoken to Kinmoku’s neighbouring senshi and thoroughly grilled the tight knit group of palace guards who will take over as Princess Kakyuu’s personal protectors in the Starlights’ absence, she can acknowledge there is wisdom in their princess’ plan.

Even so, the feeling of distance worsens as Fighter makes her temporary farewells and prepares for a year apart. Something’s disconnected inside her.

It makes her stiffer than she would be otherwise as she and Maker speak with the outer senshi on their arrival, the meeting mildly stilted but not uncomfortable. They are mostly welcoming and there is an amount of genuine joy between the two groups at seeing each other again. Time has passed for them all.

Uranus mentions that Usagi is in America with Mamoru.

Earth’s inner senshi have spread out wider throughout Japan, working, travelling, living their lives now their planet is also at peace. Fighter and Maker pay their respects to Mars, now head priestess at the Hikawa shrine, and Maker reconnects with Mercury, Ami studying medicine at one of Japan’s top universities.

Fighter finds herself spending some time with Venus and Jupiter, although Minako is passionately busy with a number of acting parts, including learning her lines for a small but notable role in an English-speaking western film set in Osaka, and Makoto only comes to Tokyo for the day to give the two Starlights her regards, soon returning to her new hometown and her small but successful cake and flower shop.

The hotel they briefly make theirs seems bare and empty once Maker arranges, with apologies, alternative accommodation with a couple of other high achieving students on her course. Fighter helps to transport Maker’s many books and few other belongings with her blessings.

She begins to look for a small apartment. It is not her intention to go back to Azabu-Juuban, but there is a place to rent that is not incredibly beyond her allowance in Minato-ku. It is not so close to Roppongi to be unbearable at night and only a few stops on the train to central areas like Shinjuku, if she feels so inclined.

There’s a memorial park with gentle slopes and a pond nearby where she can lie beneath the plum trees and look up at the sky. Fighter stays there for some time, eating a convenience store bento and watching the clouds between the branches, thinking of the visible signs of cockroaches and the cost of key money in the other four tiny apartments she’s viewed so far.

She takes the place.

Just like the hotel once Maker left, her temporary new home is sparse and bare. Seiya would have filled it with bright things, red roses, musical instruments and school textbooks tossed into a corner. Not that the Three Lights ever occupied such small, shabby chambers.

Fighter’s never been alone like this before. She’s also almost immediately recognised.

In the five years since their last concert, the Three Lights have been replaced by other idol bands but not forgotten, their music played on the radio or featured on TV shows. But while Fighter’s hair and sunglasses cause the not infrequent double take or comment in central Tokyo, here in Azubu-Juuban Seiya was better known. Out of uniform for the first time in her own body, Fighter now has the choice of Earth-style clothing that either tends to conceal or accentuate her female form. As Seiya she was used to the appreciation of fans and acquaintances alike and, on Kinmoku and its nearby planets, Fighter gained her share of attention.

It is still difficult for her to disregard the glances now even so: the way people look at her and expect her to be someone else.

She grows used to deflection even as she begins, for the first time in her life, to consider cutting her hair. Choosing a new name to call herself this second time around is an unfortunate necessity given the need to avoid yet further comparision to her Three Light's guise and in order to complete legal paperwork for the apartment: she can be neither Seiya nor Fighter to anyone other than Earth’s senshi.

After going by Princess Kakyuu’s suggestion of ‘Hikari’ for a while, Fighter decides to try out ‘Hikaru’. Neither option fits particularly well. She takes to wearing differently shaped sunglasses with her hair tied in a long plait or twisted into a bun. She buys clothes and wears them because she likes them, rather than considering what strangers will make of them or what gender they’re designed for.

Adopting the male body of Seiya for an hour one morning, she slips back into her own afterwards and doesn’t feel the need to change it again.

3

Having free time is a novel experience that only comes to worsen her uncharacteristic sense of detachment.

To combat it Fighter applies for a couple of college courses and does some impromptu coaching one time when a group of preteens start arguing over a game of softball in a rare space between buildings not far from her apartment. Ending up acting as umpire is not what she expected to do with her afternoon but, as the alternative was cycling between seeking out and avoiding shadows of the past, it’s not a bad use of her time.

The kids are too young to realise or care about her resemblance to a member of an old disbanded idol group, and in the end Fighter finds that almost despite herself, she’s having fun.

Usagi is nowhere and everywhere she goes at once – in the snacks Fighter buys from convenience stores and fast food restaurants, in the toy prizes in arcade games, in the changing coloured lights in the club where she can’t bring herself to dance. Still, she slowly starts to carve out a space for herself in this city and to breathe through the grief she gradually comes to acknowledge in a way she’s never permitted herself to before. Mourning not for the familiar pang of unrequited love, but for the people who suffered on Earth and for the atrocities she witnessed here and back on Kinmoku.

For all it’s been five years since their battle ended, for Fighter it never really truly finished, however she relished the peace she strove so long and so hard for.

In her entire existence, she’s never had downtime like this or such a simple lifestyle. There has always been a mission, always something to battle. As the Three Lights, she, Maker and Healer were constantly juggling their roles as male idols with their desperate search.

As frantic as she was, Fighter succeeded in this better at times than at others.

Time passes and she purchases a red floor rug and a plant for her room. She gets two part time jobs for the money but also for the distraction: one as a restaurant singer and the other as a bouncer at the dance club, both of which Seiya would have chafed at and Yaten would have laughed at her for – and Healer still might, when Fighter tells her. Maker sometimes drops by between courses or Fighter travels to see her at university. They speak about their princess and their time here, the still sometimes surprising cultural differences between Earth and Kinmoku, the ties they are starting to make on this planet and the months left before they can return home.

This is Fighter’s life now for the moment, now she’s not fighting anymore.

The local kids ask her several more times to oversee their softball games and she ends up starting coaching for real on weekends at the nearby school. There are a couple of regulars at the restaurant who always ask her for their favourite songs, and she makes friends with the chef and some of the wait staff. Getting to toss idiots out of the dance club proves unexpectedly enjoyable.

Every night, when Fighter gets back late after work, she looks up out of the window somewhere in the direction of Kinmoku. Either the stars are visible or they’re not.

She refuses to admit to the loneliness that gnaws at her.

Even so, she’s establishing a niche for herself. Starting to relax a bit, maybe even starting to move on. Starting to feel like she might be able to achieve a sense of closure in a way she hadn't before.

Of course this is when Tsukino Usagi shows up.

4

There’s someone following her.

It doesn’t take much for Fighter to realise this given the person is very poor at stalking. They’re noisy for a start, bumping into things and failing to properly muffle their resultant squawks behind their hand. They also keep exclaiming in what is probably supposed to be a whisper about how “pretty” she is.

Fighter isn’t accustomed to being thought beautiful. It’s never been something she’s paid much attention to or aimed for. She’s always preferred to go for more of a classy or cool vibe, as exemplified by her time as Seiya. ‘Cute’ is a word that’s sometimes been applied to Healer, much as the other Starlight might dislike it, and Maker has had many compliments paid to her grace and poise. It takes Fighter longer than it should do to realise that “beautiful lady” her stalker mentions is her.

It makes her cheeks prickle with faint heat, as does the knowledge that her stalker is female.

There is something somehow _familiar_ about the whispers and murmurs. Something about the other woman’s tone and pitch and word choice that tightens something in Fighter’s heart.

Rather than shutting this down quickly therefore, Fighter leads her pursuer on a merry chase down several roads and past numerous rows of shops, turning a corner where the buildings open up to the park.

Then without warning, she abruptly rounds on her stalker.

“_Ahhhhhhh!_”

The screech makes her reel back unintentionally, scolding words dying in her throat, her expression going slack with shock as she catches sight of the young woman. There’s an index finger stabbing at Fighter's face, wide blue eyes fixed on hers, a mouth open with the promise of another screech.

An _extremely familiar face_ –

_Odango?! _

She fails to say it. The old nickname sticks in her throat.

“_Seiya?!_” Usagi sounds just as astounded as Fighter feels.

That feeling of detachment, of being adrift, spirals swiftly into intense dizziness. The sensation that’s surrounded Fighter since leaving Kinmoku, the one she tries not to acknowledge – That sensation of being cut off from everything including her own emotions, the sensation of everything not quite being tangible, not quite being right –

It falters. Cracks.

Then there’s a sort of _shattering _inside her, like something breaks. Something that was made of glass.

Fighter stares at Tsukino Usagi –

And suddenly, stunningly, overwhelmingly, the universe seems to speed up. Life rushes back into crystal clear focus, real and immediate, bright and colourful and true.

“_U-Usagi?_” The whisper wrenches out of Fighter, almost harsh. If she wasn’t so shocked, she’d be appalled by the way her voice breaks.

To think she’d all but convinced herself it was only Seiya who fell for this girl.

“It's you,” Usagi drops her hand. Her fingers clutch at the hem of her blouse, “It _is_ you. I found you.”

And then there are tears welling in those blue eyes and a bag being heedlessly dropped, and the small figure launches herself into Fighter’s arms. Unprepared for the contact after so long or the reality of Usagi’s body against her own true form, Fighter staggers at the impact.

Her hands come up reflexively, visibly trembling. She doesn’t quite close them around slender shoulders, doesn’t quite dare return the touch. Shuddering inside with the rush from her detachment shattering, her heart overloaded, her breath coming shallowly and leaving her lightheaded – all of her emotions suddenly too much and too strong.

She’s never felt like this in her life.

“Usagi,” Fighter lets herself say again, whispering this time. She bends her head just enough that fine golden strands tickle her nose.

The young woman in her arms stiffens in surprise and pulls back half a step. Fighter immediately steps back as well.

“No nickname?” Usagi's smiling, wiping her wet cheeks with her fingers, “Seiya? Or, uh –”

Her eyes drop briefly but noticeably to the swell of Fighter’s cleavage beneath her red shirt, Usagi’s already pink flushed cheeks darkening to a deeper hue.

Standing very still, Fighter weathers the gaze.

In return she finds herself looking at Usagi, cataloguing the way she looks the same as she did five years ago – still petite, still wearing her hair up in dumpling-shaped buns – and the way she’s changed. Slight differences to her style and the way she holds her shoulders; to the set of her mouth and the shape of her face.

“I mean, Star Fighter?” Usagi’s fidget returns before she catches herself, smoothing her hands on her shorts instead, “Um, what should I call you?”

_Anything you like._

This is the answer Fighter doesn’t give. It’s something Seiya would say and not her, and it’s not either his or her right anymore.

It never was.

She missed their chance back before they even met the first time, didn’t she; back before anything even started. And that shouldn’t – and, she tells herself, _doesn’t_ – matter now.

5

They go to a fast food restaurant.

Fighter’s impressed anew with how much Usagi can eat, how much her metabolism lets her pack away. She picks at her food herself until it comes to her hamburger. At this point Fighter’s appetite returns with a vengeance and she wolfs it down.

Usagi slurps happily at her third milkshake and then plays with the straw wrapper. A smile dragged out of her with no say on her part at all, Fighter starts to relax somewhat.

They talk.

“’Fighter’ is fine between us,” she belatedly answers Usagi’s question, once Fighter has drawn the appropriate kanji with a finger on the table top for ‘Kou’ – and, with added hiragana and a different reading, the names ‘Hikari’ and ‘Hikaru’.

“They suit you, but ‘Seiya’ was better. ‘Fighter’ is better too,” Sucking up the last dregs of her drink, Usagi pouts into her glass, “At least in my job I didn’t have to use kanji.” A gleam lights up her eyes, “I didn’t have to use kanji for _years_.”

“Your job?” Past tense? Fighter suddenly has so many questions. Unlike before when she uncharacteristically couldn’t speak, now she can’t stop talking, “Also – you’re well? Happy? I was under the impression you were in America. Mamoru-san is well also? He has come back to Japan too?”

It is of utmost important to her to hear that Usagi is happy.

“Oh,” Usagi straightens momentarily in her seat. Her eyes slide sideways towards Fighter as if she’s pretending not to look at her, “Yes, I’m happy. Mamo-chan said he’s doing very well in his last letter. He’s working in America now; his college course finished a while ago.” She looks at Fighter properly now, “Are you happy too? I’ve missed you.”

His last _letter_? Hadn’t Usagi gone to be with him? Why would Mamoru have needed to write?

Fighter can’t talk about herself or about missing each other for the moment, the emotions lodged in her chest too raw. Over the past five years she’s missed Usagi so much at times it physically hurt.

As Usagi is waiting for an answer, Fighter gets out, “I’m very well, thank you.” She gives Usagi a brief summary of her new life here and about those she left behind on Kinmoku. “Our princess and Healer send their regards too. Maker would like to see you.”

“Minako-chan said on the phone that you met with everyone,” Usagi observes. When Fighter nods, she gives the other woman that sideways look again, almost but not quite shy, “I couldn’t cut my contract short in America, but I hurried back here to see you as soon as I could.”

“You –” Fighter attempts to have so many reactions at once she actually splutters. Usagi had been working _in America_? And had hurried back to see _her_? “I, ah – What did Mamoru-san think?”

“Mamo-chan doesn’t make my decisions for me,” Usagi draws herself up a bit again, her response firm, “I know we always have the past and the future to think of, Mamo-chan and I, but –” She changes what she’s saying midsentence, “Fighter, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier. About my future self and Prince Endymion and Chibiusa – that side of things.”

“Mm,” Fighter shakes her head, “I’m sorry too.”

There are many things she would have done differently were she able to change the past. In a fast food restaurant is not where she’d imagined apologising, but Usagi is comfortable here and that’s what matters.

“I think I pushed my feelings on you at times and I shouldn't have done,” Seiya hadn’t been able to really recognise it back then, too desperate in too many ways. Fighter can see it now. “I’m sorry. I was so caught up in everything and I didn't support you as much as I intended. As much as you deserved.”

Having good intentions wasn’t good enough.

“Mm,” Usagi echoes Fighter’s little noise. Shaking her head, she darts an almost teasing look up at her, a crooked smile quirking her lips, “You know, I didn’t get it at all back then.”

“Even though I told you I was in love with you?” Her heart thumps at the inadvertent confession an instant later – _her_ and not just Seiya – and Fighter holds up a hand quickly, “Ah, I don’t mean –”

For all Usagi’s face turns bright red, her gaze is perceptive.

“I think –” She chews her lip, “I think maybe you do mean it?” Only a faint inflection in her tone makes this a question.

Yes. Fighter draws a measured breath in. Yes, she does mean it.

Still:

“I’m sorry I didn’t listen better,” she says instead. Usagi had told Seiya time and again that she already had a boyfriend. A man who had left her behind, who had not even bothered answering her letters – that was all Seiya had known and believed until it was too late, unaware of all the rest.

It’s no excuse.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you sooner,” they both say at the same time.

“It’s okay –” Usagi’s reaching for Fighter’s hand before either seem to quite realise it. The touch makes them both jump.

Fighter holds herself carefully still, neither encouraging nor withdrawing from the contact.

“It’s okay,” Usagi repeats, “I’m so happy to see you now. I’m happy to be back home too – I was in America for a year and before that I went to England for six weeks.”

Fighter’s eyebrows shoot up, “Do you speak English?” If her memory serves – which it does – this was one of Usagi’s least favourite subjects.

“No,” Usagi collapses into giggles, “I got hired by a childcare company in London for a language exchange program. They worked out quickly when I got there that I lied on the application form. Minako-chan was living there at the time and really helped me out.”

“And in America?” Presumably Mamoru had helped with the language barrier there.

“Oh, I couldn’t really speak any English there either. I pretended again on the form,” Usagi bounces in her seat, “I stayed near Mamo-chan for a bit while teaching some kids how to speak Japanese. After that I travelled around and then I worked in a convenience store. I know some convenience store English now!”

She proceeds to proudly tell Fighter the names of various foods, scrunching her nose over ‘carrots’, and then continues on to naming their clothes and accessories, commenting enthusiastically about Fighter’s sense of style in broken English.

Throughout this Fighter is intently aware of the fact that Usagi is still touching her hand.

She is also utterly, ridiculously charmed.

6

Everything picks up after that.

It turns out that Usagi and Mamoru have essentially decided to take time out for themselves as well, as it were – very good friends who are often in contact with each other, but not allowing their future selves' relationship to dictate the present. Fighter speaks to Mamoru more than once when he phones and he only expresses support for Usagi and no discomfort.

“I was so worried Chibiusa might disappear,” Usagi confesses one time when they’re sitting beneath the plum trees in Fighter’s local park, gazing up at the stars between the branches.

Fighter doesn’t look so longingly in the direction of Kinmoku now.

“Is she all right?” she glances back at Usagi at once.

“Mm,” Usagi’s nod is decisive, “Yeah. She contacted me from the future to tell me not to worry and that everything will work out.”

Fighter smiles despite herself, “That sounds like good advice.”

Usagi’s fingers creep closer across the grass towards her own. Seeing this, Fighter doesn’t presume to complete the touch but nor does she withdraw her hand.

The breaths she takes in are easier now, her exhalations seeming lighter likewise. Weeks pass and they don’t necessarily plan to hang out together, but it happens more and more. They travel to Osaka together to visit Minako on set as her special guests and to watch some of the filming, and go racing with Haruka and Michiru. Usagi starts dragging Fighter to all-you-can-eat dessert places and karaoke bars, and appears without warning at the restaurant one evening with Rei, Ami and Maker in tow, Usagi whooping and cheering loudly after each of Fighter’s songs.

Fighter pretends to be embarrassed, but is filled with so much happiness it feels like she’s going to burst.

Her little apartment slowly starts to fill up with stuff – more plants and sheet music and even a keyboard crammed in one corner. She does her utmost to make Usagi a fairly successful bento on the first day of Usagi’s new job, with a selection of several of her favourite desserts; this being something neither Fighter nor Seiya had ever done before. Usagi is delighted and so, ignoring her own awkwardness, Fighter continues carefully teaching herself to cook – ‘helped’ by Usagi’s somewhat dubious advice and with a fair amount of trial and error on her own part. She makes Usagi at least one lunch a week from then on.

Usagi always returns the empty bento boxes with glowing compliments and little thank you notes on cute paper folded inside, decorated with her doodles and interspersed with amusing anecdotes.

Fighter’s preteen softball team win a local competition and she starts playing baseball herself every other week with a group that includes some of the restaurant wait staff. She finishes working as a bouncer to allow more time for studying when she's accepted onto a course at the Tokyo College of Music, but she and Usagi still go dancing at the club on and off. Giggling, Usagi confesses about the dirty thoughts she had in the past in that private room. Heat darkens Fighter’s cheeks at the admission, but she doesn’t wonder how Seiya would have reacted had he known, instead teasing Usagi lightly for her filthy mind before steering the conversation to a different subject.

It’s not her imagination Usagi looks disappointed.

Time continues to pass and Fighter no longer wonders what to call herself: any adopted name is just that, just something to write on a form. She is herself and that’s what matters. She speaks freely with Princess Kakyuu when she and Healer come to visit, and all the senshi from both worlds get together for what turns into a party. Sometime not long after that Usagi insists on Fighter meeting her parents and brother.

It’s only a little awkward at first. Fighter tells them about her family in return – her princess and her sisters at heart – and Usagi nudges at her feet with her own under the table.

Biting the inside of her cheek, Fighter lets herself nudge back in return.

Six months into her stay on Earth a new foe appears. Shadowy figures who call themselves travellers from the gaps between the stars, hungry for the darkness alongside the light in people’s hearts.

After all they’ve fought and faced before, these shadows are small fry. Sailor Moon and Sailor Star Fighter transform together as one. Dealing with the threat as a duo feels entirely natural: one acts while the other provides support if needed, working around each other effortlessly, building on and combining their moves, the pair of them doubly effective and undeniably strong.

After they’ve won the first battle and Usagi reaches out, smiling irrepressibly, Fighter grins back just as widely and takes her hand.

_End_


End file.
